9-year-old Bill Rohan rejoices in the destruction of his school by an errant Luftwaffe bomb. The story picks up nearly a decade later as Bill begins basic training in the early Fifties, during the Korean War. Bill is joined by a trouble-making army mate, Percy. They never get near Korea, but engage in a constant battle of wits with the Catch-22-worthy, Sgt. Major Bradley -- the brilliant David Thewlis. Richard E. Grant is their superior, the veddy, veddy, infinitely put-upon, aptly-named Major Cross. A superb ensemble cast limns a wonderfully funny and often moving depiction of a still-recovering postwar England.
The movie is a sweet-natured, easy-going bit of storytelling, and while Bill may be the central character, Queen and Country is really a movie about England. And it's a love letter to a particular time and place
Given how richly his countryman Terence Davies has realized post-war England in movies like Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Deep Blue Sea, the cartoonishness of Queen And Country grates even further.
Seanax.com
August 13, 2016
[John] Boorman was 82 when he made the film and his direction is easy and effortless, befitting the story.
A wartime comedy of manners, it's a delightfully whimsical portrait of 1952 England, a time and place of class discord that's both uproarious and politically pointed.
In short, [you may realize] how expert presentation can draw you into a world, immerse you in the lives of others, and make you sorry to leave when it's over.
The whole thing exudes a warm, honeyed glow, particularly in those scenes where the women - Bill's mum (Cusack) and the object of his affection, Ophelia (Egerton) - seem to embody the sense of loss and social disruption that imbued the age.
It's a pleasant, nostalgic movie that didn't need to be made (a memoir written, maybe), chiefly because he has nothing new to say about the postwar era.
Don't let the British pedigree and nostalgic trimmings fool you: this is no Masterpiece Theatre exercise but a broad, high-spirited, riotously funny service comedy, on par with M*A*S*H and Stripes.
